Garbage truck accidents could be up, down depending on stats

TORIN HALSEY/TIMES RECORD NEWS A truck with a large grapple arm is needed to pick up items dumped illegally in alleys and other places around Wichita Falls. The City Council recently approved the purchase of a second grapple arm truck for the growing problem of illegal dumping.

It's unclear whether pay raises for city of Wichita Falls garbage truck drivers have been effective in curbing the number of accidents in which they are involved.

In 2014, drivers received a pay bump, an attempt to cut down on the number of accidents they were committing, along with an effort to reduce turnover, budget documents indicate.

But two sets of statistics, one kept by the sanitation department and another kept by the city's human resources department, tell two different tales. Sanitation numbers show accident numbers to be down, but human resources figures show the number of accidents committed by garbage truck drivers to be at a six-year high.

"There are so many variables as to why the accidents happen. It's hard to put too many years together and say, 'This is what happened,'" said David Lehfedlt, Wichita Falls' sanitation superintendent. "Unless (the human resources department) used the same criteria, it could be apples and oranges."

The city's budget for fiscal year 2014-'15 identified a high rate of turnover as the culprit for "extreme operating difficulties" in the department. In response, city councilors passed a measure to increase sanitation salary funding by $150,000.

Lehfeldt told the Times Record News the raises have decreased turnover and cut down on accidents, such as garbage trucks being run into brick walls or parked cars. The number of preventable accidents fell from 49 in the 2013-14 fiscal year to 41 in the 2014-15 year, Lehfeldt said.

But numbers obtained from the city's human resources department show an opposite trend. Those figures show that the total number of accidents — both preventable and not preventable — to be at a six year high.

In 2015, 19 preventable accidents involving sanitation drivers occurred, up from the 15 reported in 2014. The number of preventable accidents was at its lowest in 2011, when only eight were recorded.

"We do have more accidents than I like, and I would like to reduce the number of accidents," Lehfeldt said. "However, I don't think our numbers of accidents are extremely high."

New garbage collectors make $26,000 annually and senior drivers make $29,000, Lehfeldt said. They were making roughly $23,000 and $27,000, respectively, before the raise, which translates to a 15 percent increase in pay.

Accidents committed by truck drivers include "a host of things," but some involve tearing down tree branches with the truck's robotic arm, damaging mailboxes and backing into parked vehicles, he said.

"They've got to dodge a lot of obstacles," Lehfeldt said. "They have to work around fences and walls, mailboxes. They have to be able to dodge traffic."

A high employee turnover rate — 39 percent before the raise — was the largest contributing factor in the accidents, which forced the city to hire young, inexperienced drivers with little training. At the same time, experienced drivers were more accident-prone because of longer hours and overtime caused by understaffing.

The sanitation department's turnover rate appears to be rebounding since the pay raises went into effect, Lehfeldt said, though he did not have specific figures detailing the reduction.

"I was losing people left and right, but this has helped," he said. "Some of the guys who were thinking about retiring haven't retired. I haven't lost as many drivers, either."

Lehfeldt acknowledged that although his ideal number of sanitation accidents each year is "zero," eliminating preventable accidents is unlikely. While garbage trucks are unwieldy and large, their operators are expected to squeeze into tight spots and navigate the roadway with other vehicles — all without hitting anything.

Operators who drive the curbside routes pick up between 1,000 and 1,200 a day.

The most difficult job, he said, is driving the commercial front-load truck, a rig with six route schedules that can change at any given moment. Lehfeldt said the job takes "a very high level of thought process and a great memory," but still requires drivers to be cognizant of their surroundings while operating the quarter-million-dollar trucks.

"As far as most of our customers are concerned, I'm a magician and I make the trash disappear," Lehfeldt said. "But like most magic tricks, there's a whole lot that goes on behind the scenes to make that happen."

The Bottom Line is a Times Record News-exclusive series where we examine local city, county and school district finances to explain how your money is being collected and spent. This series is published in print Sunday – Thursdays and is available online at timesrecordnews.com/trninvestigates through February 25, 2016.